


Laughter Brings Out the Most Genuine Smiles

by WinterAndLittleBrunettes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College, Family, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Roadtrip, University, but he meets a cute boy at a gas station, he even gets a cute boy's number, he regrets it almost immediately, keith makes the mistake of agreeing to a family roadtrip, klance, rip boi, so he's doing okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28682406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterAndLittleBrunettes/pseuds/WinterAndLittleBrunettes
Summary: Before moving across the country to go to university, Keith agrees to a roadtrip with Shiro and Adam to spend some time together before he's locked up in school. But after a mere few days in the car, he starts to regret it with too many games ofI Spy.When they inevitably have to stop for gas in the middle of nowhere in somewhere in the central States, he meets a cute boy working alone at a gas station who does his best to get him to smile. Somehow, it works.
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 129





	Laughter Brings Out the Most Genuine Smiles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kayleeschuyler (stephaniebithell)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephaniebithell/gifts).



> Hello loves!
> 
> I came to the recent realization that I never posted this fic anywhere... There is a snippet of it on my Instagram, but never the full story! So here it is, ready for you to enjoy <3

# Laughter Brings Out the Most Genuine Smiles

If Keith didn’t get out of this squished moving metal boredom machine in the next couple of minutes, he couldn’t be blamed for his actions.

For the last two days, nearly every waking hour had been spent in the family minivan, driving across the continent to drop Keith off at his new university.

Initially, it sounded like a great idea, which was why Keith agreed to it in the first place. Spending the days leading up to move-in day with his brother and Adam would be nice before not seeing them for months of school hell. But now he wanted to sew zippers to their mouths to stop them from singing loudly and terribly to the music on the radio, or god forbid, play  _ another  _ **_fucking_ ** _ game  _ of I Spy.

“Guys,  _ please _ ,” Keith begged for what seemed like the millionth time, “can we please stop somewhere? I really need to stretch my legs.”

“Just stretch them up here,” Shiro offered, gesturing to the center console. But when his husband glared at him over his glasses, he rephrased; “Temporarily. Without your shoes on.”

Adam nodded to that.

Keith groaned and flopped back dramatically against his seat. Once he pouted for a moment, he chanced a glance up at the dashboard, checking how much gas they had left. Adam had a habit of ignoring it while driving, which was why they were extremely well acquainted with the local tow-truck man back in their hometown. When he saw the dial pointing closer to the red than comfortable, he spoke up: “We’re gonna need gas soon.”

“What? No, we just got--” Adam glanced down at the fuel indicator, then pursed his lips. “Huh. Guess we do need gas soon.” He took a quick peek over his shoulder to see if Keith had his phone in his hand. “Do you mind checking where the nearest gas station is?”

“I can,” Shiro offered, already pulling his phone out.

Both Keith and Adam winced at Shiro’s suggestion. “Uh, thanks love,” Adam said hesitantly, “but the last time we followed your directions, we ended up going the  _ wrong _ direction.”

Keith nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” He then put his head down and did a quick google search, letting the light bickering from the front be ignored. Luckily, there appeared to be one only a couple kilometers away, right along the highway they were currently travelling on. When he told Adam as such, and which side of the road it would be on, he put his headphones back in and tried to will the time to go by faster.

But before the chorus of the song could even come around, Shiro turned around and patted Keith’s knee, begging for his attention again. “Want to play I Spy?”

“No,” Keith growled, glaring at his brother, “I  _ don’t _ want to play I Spy. All there is are trees, rocks, birds, and the odd car. If I have to guess  _ any _ of those things  _ one more time, _ I will punch a hole in the window.”

“Please don’t,” Adam piped in casually, “we still have a few more payments left before we’ve paid off the bank.”

“Don’t make me break anything,” Keith pleaded. “Just let me listen to my music loud enough to drown out your horrible singing.”

Shiro gasped dramatically, looking offended by Keith’s statement. “My  _ ‘horrible’ _ singing?! I’ll have you know I could win an Oscar for my singing!”

“You mean a Grammy,” Adam corrected gently.

“That!” Shiro exclaimed. “A Grammy! I could win a  _ Grammy _ with my singing voice.”

Keith hummed disagreeingly, and put his headphones back in, a sign that he was done with the conversation, and watched as the trees flew by. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Adam pat Shiro’s knee encouragingly, surely to soothe his wounded pride and his pouty face.

After a couple of songs passed, he noticed that the car was finally slowing down. He quickly pulled his headphones out and sat up to look out the front windshield, in time to see the blessed gas station sign getting closer and closer. “About time,” he breathed out, and started unbuckling his seatbelt.

Adam tutted and shook his head at Keith, but Keith paid him no mind, opening the door before the car was properly stopped in front of the gas pump. He was out and stretching before either Shiro or Adam even had their seatbelts off. 

“If you’re so eager to stretch,” Adam spoke up, “can you run in and grab road snacks?”

“Ooh, I want a slush puppy!” Shiro exclaimed.

Adam rolled his eyes fondly. “You’re such a child. I’ll take a Toblerone, please.”

“Sure,” Keith nodded, and reached back into the car for his wallet. “Anything else?”

“Nope!” Both boys confirmed.

With that, Keith made his way over to the variety store on the other side of the lot.

As soon as he stepped in the door, he noticed he was the only one in there. But after a moment, an employee stood up from in front of the fridge with an armful of drinks clutched to his chest. A bright smile was quickly sent Keith’s way, and he nearly froze in shock. That boy was  _ beautiful.  _ Bright brown skin with piercing blue eyes, complete with a Hollywood smile that made Keith’s heart stutter in his chest.  _ Damn. _

But he quickly pushed the thoughts from his head. They were in the middle of nowhere, at a random gas station he’d never come back to. There was no sense getting his hopes up.

“Hi!” The employee said brightly. The name tag on his chest read ‘Lance’. “Can I help you with something?”

“No, I’m good,” Keith said gently. His eyes scanned around the room for a signature red package, and he made a beeline for it once he spotted it.

As soon as the small red bag of  _ Malteasers _ were in his hand, he clutched them to his chest, an excited tingle shooting up his veins. He was so excited to eat these later.

“Man, that’s one serious frown, mister,” Lance said cheekily. “You’d think you’re trying to make frowning contagious.” He frowned for good measure.

Keith tilted his head slightly in confusion.  _ What was this guy’s problem? _

Lance quickly let up when he saw Keith’s confusion. “Sorry, I just had to  _ tease _ the guy holding Mal _ tease _ rs.”

That almost made Keith smile a bit, but he turned his back and made his way over to the slushy machine before Lance could see. He made quick work of making Shiro’s horrendous combination slush puppy, half blue raspberry and the other half cherry, and turned to look for a Toblerone for Adam.

Lance caught his eye while he was looking. “Something I can help you find?”

“Yeah, do you carry Toblerones?”

“Sure do!” Lance pointed towards a shelf off to the side, right by the Malteasers he’d already grabbed.

“Oh, I totally missed them,” Keith murmured bashfully.

“You only had eyes for your heart’s desire,” Lance said with a confident smirk.

Keith could only nod. As much as his heart ( _ and stomach _ ) always loved Malteasers, he also knew he’d been a little distracted by the  _ other _ sights in here.

As he reached for the biggest Toblerone, the one he knew Adam would pick if he were here, Lance’s eyes went wide. Keith hesitated, looking over at Lance confusedly. “You like big things, huh?” Lance said slyly, a knowing smirk pulling his lips up dangerously. “Don’t worry, me too.”

Flustered and unsure how to unpack  _ that _ comment ( _ as much as he wanted to _ ), he fled the scene of the incident and started making his way towards the front counter to pay for his spoils. He knew Adam would ask where his Toblerone was, but he didn’t care. He’d come up with some excuse, even if it was as simple as saying he forgot.

“Sure you don’t want one?” Lance called from the Toblerone stand.

“I’m good,” Keith squeaked out.

With a shrug, Lance started making his way to the counter so Keith could pay for his things. But as he got to the counter’s edge, separating employees from customers, he stalled. “C’mon Mr. Grumpy Pants,” he teased gently, “there must be  _ something _ I can say to make you smile.”

“Why do you want to make me smile?” Keith asked incredulously.

“You seem like the kind of guy who’d have a really pretty smile, and I’d love to see it once before you go and I never see you again.” Lance replied honestly. He leaned against the counter, elbows digging into the tray of lottery tickets. “Laughter brings out the most genuine ones, y’know.”

A smile came to Keith’s lips unbiddenly at Lance’s honesty. He tried to smother it by biting his lower lip, but Lance’s entire face was already lighting up like he himself had won the lottery.

“There you are,” he murmured. “Just as pretty as I thought.”

Keith’s cheeks reddened, but he couldn’t do anything about it, nor the smile that came back with a vengeance, so big he could feel it in his cheeks. A giggle even bubbled out of his chest.  _ A giggle.  _ “Okay okay,” he said, waving his hands about nervously, “I should pay and get out of your hair.”

“Oh yeah, cuz I’m  _ sooo _ busy here right now,” Lance said with an eye roll, gesturing out vaguely to the rest of the store. 

“Definitely, I can’t keep you from all of your demanding customers,” Keith teased with a soft giggle.

Lance shook his head, a fond chuckle shaking his shoulders. “You’re something else, pretty boy.” With that, he finally made his way behind the counter to ring everything up.

Once everything was paid for, Lance kept the receipt for a minute to write something down at the bottom. When he handed it over, Keith saw it was a phone number, complete with a cute little smiley face beside it.

“Don’t make it weird,” Lance said with a wink. Then from below the counter he produced a lollipop and gave it to Keith. “Don’t tell my boss,” he whispered conspiratorially, “she doesn’t know about my stash.”

“Don’t worry,” Keith assured, “I won’t tell.” Before leaving the counter he unwrapped the lollipop and popped it in his mouth, throwing a quick wink Lance’s way while gathering up his goodies. “Have a good one, Lance.”

If Lance replied, he was out of the store before he could hear it. Shiro was leaning against the passenger door eagerly waiting for his drink, while Adam was already back in the van.

“Well that took you a little longer than expected,” Adam commented lightly as soon as everyone was loaded back up in the car. “We were starting to think you’d gotten lost in there.”

Shiro hummed agreeingly around his straw. “Yeah, what held you up?”

Keith merely shrugged.

“Hey, where’s my Toblerone?”

“They didn’t have any good ones,” Keith replied quickly, looking resolutely out the window.

Confused silence followed Keith’s answer. “What does that even mean?” Adam asked incredulously.

“Oooh, I think I know,” Shiro said, turning in his seat so he could see his little brother, “there was a cute boy in there, wasn’t there? And he made you forget everything you went in there for?”

Keith pulled the lollipop from his mouth, leveling his brother with a look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Shiro and Adam just laughed.

*~*~*~*

Three days later, they finally made it to their destination. Somehow Keith didn’t manage to kill his carmates, and didn’t cause any damage to the vehicle, so he considered it a win.

As he hopped out of the van and took a look around, excitement buzzed through his veins. He was finally here!

But his gaze stumbled upon a familiar sight, who looked just as surprised to see him. “Lance?”

“Pretty boy!” Lance exclaimed and came jogging up to him. “What a  _ crazy _ coincidence.”

“No kidding,” Keith ran a hand down the length of his face. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

Shiro tapped Keith’s arm, pulling his attention away from Lance. “Sorry, who’s this?”

“Oh, uh,” Keith shuffled back and forth awkwardly on the balls of his feet, “this is Lance. I met him at that convenience store a few days ago.”

“So  _ he’s _ why I didn’t get my Toblerone,” Adam spoke up.

Keith rolled his eyes, while Lance just laughed.

Shiro stepped over to his husband’s side and grabbed his arm. “We’re gonna go, uh, over there.” He said loudly.

“Wait,” Adam tried steering Shiro the other way, “the registration table is that way--”

“C’mon, we’ve gotta give them a minute!”

“But we could at least be  _ productive _ \--”

Keith rolled his eyes even harder, but Lance took it in stride, stepping closer to Keith with a gentle laugh. “Y’know, you never told me your name.” Lance said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I was gonna put you in my phone as ‘pretty boy with a lollipop’ if you’d given me your number.”

“‘Pretty boy’, huh?” Keith asked with a raised brow, and put a hand on his hip. “I know you are, but what am I?”

“Oof, back to juvenile comebacks?” Lance staggered back with a hand over his heart. “You wound me pretty boy, I thought you could do better than that.”

“That just proves you don’t know me very well.”

“Not yet, no, but I’d like to.”

Keith offered his hand out to Lance to shake. “My name’s Keith. I think I’d prefer  _ that _ in your phone to ‘pretty boy with a lollipop’. Besides, you’re the one who gave me said lollipop.”

“But you still  _ had _ a lollipop, Keith,” Lance rebutted, “so my statement holds true.”

“That it does.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me on other social media platforms! You can find me on [tumblr](http://winter-and-little-brunettes.tumblr.com/), [twitter](https://twitter.com/winternbrunett5), and [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/winterandlittlebrunettes/)! I usually post updates about my fics, so follow me to keep up to date with my writing!


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